Challenges and possibilities for improvement in teacher education

Teacher quality is one of the indicators of educational quality in one country. Teacher education as an institution that develops the skills and knowledge of future teachers contributes significantly to teacher quality. Apart from its controversy, PISA results that placed Indonesia at the bottom of the list for over two decades are a wake-up call to improve the quality of teachers. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to improve the quality of teacher education, as suggested in the reviews of national policies for education in Indonesia. The voices of dissatisfaction on the quality of initial teacher education in Indonesia are clear to hear, indicating that graduates of initial teacher education (ITE) are perceived not professional yet for the teaching profession. This paper discusses three challenges that affect the quality of ITE in Indonesia. First, ITE has a low stake selection process for teacher candidates. Second, there is a huge discrepancy of initial teacher education institutions. Third, there has been an oversupply of teacher graduates with diverse abilities and career intentions. This paper argues that the quality of graduates is built on the quality of entrants and institutions. This paper suggests the reformation of the selection process and diminishing the discrepancy in ITE institutions’ quality to improve the quality of teacher education graduates in Indonesia.
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